A January spending spree that saw the Hoops twice break their transfer record, first by bringing in Marseille forward Loic Remy and then Anzhi's Christopher Samba. With the club's Loftus Road home only holding 18,500 and relegation to the Championship a distinct possibility, there have been those questioning whether QPR could end up in financial trouble.

Redknapp, though, believes the club are being unfairly focused upon, and said: "Other clubs spend money down there. Aston Villa have spent big money as well. People think 'They've only bought kids' - well go back to Darren Bent. You can go through a list of players there and they've spent good money, the Richard Dunnes and all these people."

He continued: "Southampton paid £12million for a striker (Gaston Ramirez) and £6million for the lad at Burnley (Jay Rodriguez) - that's £18million for two players.

"It is suddenly like QPR are the only ones spending money. I think QPR only spent £12million in the summer, which in today's market is not astronomical.

"It seems we seem to be labelled as the only team that are spending big money. Samba was a big signing, but I don't know how much he earns."

Redknapp insisted the QPR board are "wealthy people" and "not exactly paupers" when questioned on the sustainability of comparatively large amounts of money being spent on wages and fees.

"That's up to the chairman and board members," he said. "I don't know if they can sustain it.

"That was their decision, the chairman and the shareholders, to spend that money on Samba. It isn't me saying 'Go and buy Chris Samba'.

"I don't think he has come here for anywhere near £100,000 a week but, whatever he is earning, that's their decision to spend that money. He came to me and said I had Chris Samba. What can you do?"